Marian Central takes one away from Carmel

Carmel was in line for a hard-earned East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball victory, with possession of the ball and a 5-point lead in the final 50 seconds Friday night.

Instead, the Corsairs saw their effort go unrewarded as Marian Central Catholic scored 7 of the final 8 points to pull out a 73-72 victory on Wyatt Lindell's 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in Woodstock.

"We just played 100 percent but things happen that you can't control," said Carmel senior Nate Reid, who scored 13 points.

"We just have to execute the little things down at the end of the game," said first-year Carmel coach Zack Ryan. "But those things are OK. If we lose a game like that we can fix those things in practice.

"The effort and intensity were great tonight and that's something we can take away from this game. We played a full four quarters."

Carmel (11-16, 1-6) led 71-66 when sophomore Brian Julien (14 points, three 3-pointers) split 2 free throws but Matt Stephens (7 points, 9 rebounds) grabbed the miss with 53 seconds left. But a turnover at midcourt led to Lindell feeding Adam Pischke (17 points on 5-for-20 shooting, 5 assists) for a layup at 0:40.

Western Illinois recruit C.J. Duff (15 points on 5-for-17 shooting, 11 rebounds) split his free throws with 33 seconds left. Pischke hit 2 free throws at 0:24 and Marian (12-14, 4-3) regained possession four seconds later on a held ball in the backcourt.

Marian coach Curtis Price used his final timeout. Pischke was cut off on his baseline drive but he kicked the ball to a wide-open Lindell (17 points) on the right wing for his fourth 3.

"Luckily for us they converged (on Pischke) and he saw Wyatt open," Price said. "Wyatt is not going to miss too many of those. He's a good shooter when you give him that much space."

Carmel was out of timeouts and Duff's contested 3 from the top of the key at the buzzer bounced off the front rim.

"We've had a couple of games like that and even if we had a timeout I don't like to use them," said Ryan, whose team was in the double bonus. "I wanted us to look to attack more but at the same time most of this group has never been in those types of games before."

That included sophomores Lesebron Duff (no relation to C.J.) and Travis Curley, who had seen limited varsity minutes while playing primarily on the sophomore team. They got their chance for extended time with senior Michael Pabst out injured.

Duff, who was out with a torn ACL last year, had 11 points and 4 rebounds and showed no fear battling inside against Marian's 6-foot-6 Nick Waytula (13 points, 24 rebounds) and 6-8 sophomore Sam Ohlrich (15 points, 5 rebounds).

"He's getting used to playing again and he was great," Ryan said.

Five players scored in a 13-0 run that put Carmel up 22-11. Marian answered to take a 36-35 halftime lead in a frenetically paced game.

Reid hit 3 free throws to break a 59-59 tie at 3:59 and Shareif Bailey (7 points, 5 assists) fed Lesebron Duff for a layup and got a steal and layup to make it 66-61.

"Very encouraging," Reid said of Carmel getting a variety of contributions. "When we get the whole team involved we play well together."